These dances were the first easy pieces which
Giuliani published when he came to Vienna as a young man. He
wrote them to be easy in the sense that much of the time you only
have to play a single melodic line and the occasional open bass
string. Most of the time they are in or near the first
position, but sometimes the melodic lines sing out high up on the strings,
where the frets are closer together so that you
don't have to stretch the hands as much as you would if they were in
the first position
(and it's fun).

Mauro Giuliani:

Dances of 1810

Five sets of lively dances from Vienna, for
guitar, most of them easy

edited by Brian Jeffery

NEW PUBLICATION JUNE 2006. Here are five sets of
dances for guitar by Giuliani, 62 dances in all, most of them easy. They
are actual dance music, from the Vienna which was just as crazy
about dancing in 1810 as it was later in the time of Strauss and Lehar. They are full of life: Giuliani was a young man of 29, who
had just burst onto the Vienna music scene. They're not boring:
they should be played with rhythm and great vivacity.

This is a completely new edition, re-engraved, of
Giuliani's sets of dances opp. 12, 21, 23, 24 and 33. Most
of them are easy to play and will be useful for students.
Newly edited by Brian Jeffery direct from the original editions.
No fingering has been added. 36 pages.

When I began work on this book, I was setting out to make
a book of easy pieces by Giuliani from works such as his op. 50.
But I soon discovered that that wasn’t Giuliani’s idea at all. Those
pieces such as op. 50 and so on are from later in his career and my
guess is that publishers offered him money to make pieces like that
and it was a way to make a living so he did it. But he appeared on
the scene in Vienna in 1808 and right at that brilliant beginning,
when he wanted to write for beginners, he wrote dances. “Schneller!
Schneller!” the young people called in that Vienna that was crazy
about dancing (Johann Strauss was six years old then) and they
wanted to dance. So Giuliani composed dances for those beginners who
also wanted to dance – not in the boring way that is usual today
where the poor beginner is told to stay way down at that first
position where the frets are far apart anyway which is more
difficult than higher up, but with a totally different concept. He
put the beginner’s fingers high up, around the twelfth fret, where
the frets are closer together and therefore easier. He added lots of
open strings in the bass. And he gave them the
hot-from-the-dance-floor dances that they had danced till 2 a.m. the
night before.

So my book of easy pieces by Giuliani consists of those pieces.
It is what he himself did in his brilliant beginning in Vienna, not
what the publishers later on persuaded him to do. It’s called Dances
of 1810.

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